Paralyzed RIT coach's inspiring birthday dive makes splash on social

Cliff's annual birthday dive was an incredible feat, but many people were also inspired by his 5-year-old daughter's sweet reaction on the sidelines.
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Cliff Devries, diving coach at RIT, gets a big hug from daughter Grace, 5, after he climbed out of the pool following his annual birthday dive at the college in Henrietta Monday, Oct. 30, 2017.(Photo: SHAWN DOWD/@sdowdphoto/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)Buy Photo

Cliff Devries can't go online these days without seeing a viral video of his annual birthday dive.

Devries, who celebrated his 44th birthday on Oct. 30 by diving into Judson Pool on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology, said he's been touched about the outpouring of love and support he has received in recent days. Devries is the head diving coach at RIT.

"It's been an amazing few days," he said. I'm just happy that everybody is seeing something that they can take from it and that it has been a positive video for everybody."

Devries, a Brighton resident, said friends, relatives and acquaintances started reaching out last week to share well-wishes.

"And other people have reached out to try to sell me juice to fix my injury," he said with a laugh.

A cancer survivor, Devries is 22 years removed from a life-saving surgery that left the right side of his body paralyzed. During a 13-hour-long surgery, doctors removed a 6-inch-long tumor at the base of Devries’ brain stem.

A two-time All-American diver at Rush-Henrietta, Devries said he misses the exhilaration of regularly plunging into the water. So Devries started a birthday dive tradition about a decade ago. He never expected his celebration would go viral.

In the video, Devries walks to the edge of a three-meter diving board before he "falls" into the water.

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Diving coach Cliff Devries was diagnosed with a brain tumor two decades ago. The tumor left him paralyzed on his right side. But once a year, on his birthday, he climbs back up the diving board.
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His 20-year-old son Corey, also a diver at Monroe Community College, spotted his father on the board. He also caught his dad when he lost his balance.

"I wanted one more inch, so as I dove my feet wouldn't scrape the board," Devries said. "That's when my leg locked up and I fell back onto Corey. I was pretty scared there for a moment. A whole bunch of scenarios were going through my head."

Among them: Which way should he roll to fall into the pool?

"Corey had me and as soon as I was back up, I was set to go, and I did," he said.

While watching Devries inspirational dive is moving, many viewers were captivated by his daughter's reaction. The video shows 5-year-old Grace jumping, cheering and clapping for her father from the pool deck and hugging him as he climbs out of the water.

Grace said she was proud to see her dad jump off the board, since he rarely dives.

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"None of this would be possible without my support system," he said. "My family, my faith and the people around me each day."

Devries has been coaching at RIT since 1999. He left the job for three years to pursue a career in accounting, but returned to lead the Tigers in 2005. The following year, he founded Upstate New York Diving, which is now the largest diving program in the state, one that has been nationally ranked the last nine years.

He was named the Upper New York State Athletic Conference Diving Coach of the Year six times while coaching at RIT, most recently in 2011.

Part of what Devries said he loves most about the video is that the video simply shows his routine on the pool deck.

"The people around me see me as normal," he said. "I walk through on deck and nobody's staring at me. Nobody thinks its special. It's just Cliff going up on the board doing his annual dive."

"There are a lot of people who walk differently, who talk differently and who look differently," he said. "If we can take on thing away from this (video) it's that we need to embrace that."

While he'll be at the pool regularly, he won't dive again until October. He has until then to consider a way to top his 2017 dive.

"I'd love to do a back dive one of these years," he said with a laugh. "But I'm just not that ambitious."